scholarly journals 764 Prevalence and clinical implications of cardiac involvement in individuals with paucisymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Supplement_G) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Trancuccio ◽  
Andrea Mazzanti ◽  
Deni Kukavica ◽  
Carlo Arnò ◽  
Matteo Sturla ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims Myocardial involvement has been reported in SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in hospitalized patients during the acute phase of the disease. However, the exact prevalence and the clinical implications of cardiac involvement in young individuals with paucisymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection are debated. Methods and results We gathered data on 100 young patients with previous paucisymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, not undergoing hospitalization and without previous diagnosis of structural heart disease, who underwent cardiological evaluation in our clinic at IRCCS ICS Maugeri (Pavia, Italy). Results were validated in an external cohort of 28 patients who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI) at Humanitas Research Hospital (Rozzano, Italy). The study population included 100 patients with previous paucisymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection: 60 (60%) males; median age 36 years (IQR: 22–50 years); median time after SARS-CoV-2 infection 181 days (IQR: 76–218 days). At the cardiological evaluation, 31/100 (31%) of patients referred cardiological symptoms, including dyspnoea, palpitations, chest pain or syncope. Overall, 26/100 (26%) patients showed on or more of the following instrumental alterations at first level assessment: 4/100 (4%) increase of TnI; 7/100 (7%) electrocardiographic abnormalities, 12/100 (12%) ventricular arrhythmias, and 11/100 (11%) echocardiographic abnormalities. Of 32 patients who underwent cardiac MRI, myocardial involvement was detected in 6/32 (19%) patients (Figure 1), similarly to what was observed in the validation cohort [54% males; median age 47 years (IQR: 26–55 years); myocardial involvement at MRI 4/28, 14%]. Furthermore, the proportion of patients with myocardial involvement was significantly higher in patients with first-level cardiac alterations (6/18, 28%) as compared with patients without cardiac alterations at first-level examination (0/14, 0%, P = 0.024). When analysing possible predictors for the occurrence of cardiac involvement at the MRI, documentation of ventricular arrhythmias at Holter ECG or exercise test was associated with an 87-fold higher probability of cardiac involvement at the MRI (OR: 87.3; 95% CI: 4.0–1914.3; P < 0.001). Conclusions Around 15–20% of patients with paucisymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibit cardiac involvement documented at the cardiac MRI after a mean of 6 months from the onset of the disease. The presence of instrumental alterations detected with first level diagnostic tests, and in particular the documentation of ventricular arrhythmias at the 24 h-Holter ECG or at the exercise stress test, is a powerful predictor of myocardial involvement.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (FI1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Mitacchione ◽  
Marco Schiavone ◽  
Alessio Gasperetti ◽  
Giovanni B Forleo

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with myocardial involvement. Among cardiovascular manifestations, cardiac arrhythmias seem to be fairly common, although no specifics are reported in the literature. An increased risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias and electrical storm (ES) has to be considered. Case summary We describe a 68-year-old patient with a previous history of coronary artery disease and severe left ventricular systolic disfunction, who presented to our emergency department describing cough, dizziness, fever, and shortness of breath. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia, confirmed after three nasopharyngeal swabs. Ventricular tachycardia (VT) storm with multiple implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) shocks was the presenting manifestation of cardiac involvement during the COVID-19 clinical course. A substrate-based VT catheter ablation procedure was successfully accomplished using a remote navigation system. The patient recovered from COVID-19 and did not experience further ICD interventions. Discussion To date, COVID-19 pneumonia associated with a VT storm as the main manifestation of cardiac involvement has never been reported. This case highlights the role of COVID-19 in precipitating ventricular arrhythmias in patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy who were previously stable.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-393
Author(s):  
Kenza Rahmouni ◽  
Pierre-Luc Bernier

Background: Anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery (AAOCA) is a significant cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in children and adolescents. The natural history of AAOCA and the pathophysiology of AAOCA-related SCD are poorly understood. Therefore, the evaluation and management of AAOCA remain controversial. This survey-based study aims to report the current AAOCA management tendencies in Canada. Methods: We built a 23-question survey on AAOCA. Questions pertained to patient presentation, investigations, morphology of the anomaly, management, and follow-up. We sent the survey to all the Canadian congenital cardiac surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, and adult congenital cardiologists. Data were anonymized and analysis was performed using descriptive statistics. Results: According to our survey participants (N = 47), patient age (94%) and amount of physical activity (60%) are the most influential factors when deciding whether to offer surgical correction. Aborted SCD, exercise-induced syncope, typical chest pain, and left jaw or arm pain are the most important clinical presentations indicating surgery. The most commonly used preoperative investigations are rest echocardiography (75%), electrocardiogram (68%), and exercise stress test (62%). Most respondents favor the unroofing procedure (78%) for surgical correction. For nonsurgical candidates, most physicians choose competitive exercise restriction (64%). Conclusion: We found a divergence between current practices and expert consensus guidelines regarding the treatment of asymptomatic left AAOCA with high-risk features. Our survey also revealed a lack of consensus among clinicians regarding the management of asymptomatic patients, very young patients, and those with right-sided AAOCA. Evidence-based criteria derived from sufficiently powered studies remain to be established to standardize AAOCA treatment.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Dionne ◽  
Meaghan Beattie ◽  
Thomas Giorgio ◽  
Annette L Baker ◽  
Ming Hui Chen ◽  
...  

Introduction: The American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines recommend testing for inducible myocardial ischemia in all patients with a history of coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) after Kawasaki disease (KD). Because the prevalence of clinical coronary complications is exceedingly low in patients whose worst-ever CAA dimension was <large/giant, we examined the yield of stress testing in KD over a 20-year period. Methods: Retrospective study including patients <18 yo with KD who underwent cardiac imaging to evaluate for inducible ischemia between 2000-2019. Patients with a prior coronary artery intervention were excluded. Inducible ischemia was defined as stress-induced reversible wall motion abnormalities on echocardiogram or cardiac MRI, or reversible defect on nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging. Results: A total of 588 stress tests were performed in 208 patients at median age of 12.4 [IQR 8.8, 16.8] years, 8.3 [IQR 5.0, 12.9] years after diagnosis (Table). Tests were performed using either exercise stress (545 [93%] tests) or pharmacologic stress with dobutamine (43 [7%] tests). Echocardiography was the most frequently used modality (n=481, 82%), followed by nuclear imaging (n=133, 23%) and cardiac MRI (n=53, 9%). Inducible ischemia was found on 11 (2%) tests in 6 (3%) patients. All patients with inducible ischemia had a history of giant CAA with persistent CAA at time of testing (moderate CAA in 2 (18%) tests, giant CAA in 9 (82%) tests). After finding inducible ischemia on stress test, coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 3 cases, cardiac catheterization in 4, stress testing using a different imaging modality in 1, and careful clinical monitoring without intervention in 3. Conclusions: Inducible ischemia was found in 2% of test after KD, and only in patients with a history of giant CAA. Recommendations in the 2017 AHA guidelines for KD for testing for myocardial ischemia in patients with non-giant CAA should be reconsidered in light of these findings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Supplement_G) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deni Kukavica ◽  
Andrea Mazzanti ◽  
Alessandro Trancuccio ◽  
Gala Giannini ◽  
Maira Marino ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is an inherited arrhythmogenic disorder that predisposes patients to develop catecholamine-mediated ventricular arrhythmias (VA), manifesting as exercise- or emotion-induced syncope or cardiac arrest. Due to the catecholaminergic nature of CPVT, exercise stress test (EST) represents the most important diagnostic test. Although widely used in clinical practice to monitor response to therapy, how BBs modulate the occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias during EST in CPVT patients is unclear. To compare the relative efficacy of different classes of betablockers (BBs, β1-selective BBs vs. nadolol) on the arrhythmic manifestations during ESTs performed off-therapy and on-therapy in patients with CPVT. Methods and results We selected 72 patients (45 females) with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants on RYR2 or CASQ2 from our cohort of 246 genotype-positive CPVT patients, who had at least one EST off-therapy and at least one EST during BB therapy. Overall, 507 ESTs (77 ESTs off-therapy, 29 ESTs during β1-selective BBs, and 401 during nadolol) were prospectively collected over 11.1 ± 6.8 years of follow-up and analysed, with a median of 5 ESTs per patient [interquartile range (IQR): 3–10 ESTs, range: 2–27 ESTs]. In the absence of therapy, VT was documented in 46/77 (60%) cases. BB therapy with nadolol significantly reduced VT at EST to 10% (41/398; P &lt; 0.001). Conversely, β1-selective BBs did not significantly decrease VT incidence at EST (13/29, 45%, P = 0.289) as compared to baseline. Importantly, nadolol was superior in preventing VT both when compared to off-therapy [odds ratio (OR): 33.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 15.6–73.5, P &lt; 0.001] but also when compared to β1-selective BBs [OR: 18.0, 95% CI: 6.0–53.5, P &lt; 0.001]. Although β1-selective BBs significantly increased the total exercise time free of arrhythmias (median 248 s, IQR: 212–315 s) as compared to baseline (median 83 s, IQR: 12–207 s; P &lt; 0.001), arrhythmia-free exercise time during nadolol (median 381 s, IQR: 251–543 s) was significantly longer as compared to both off-therapy (P &lt; 0.001) and β1-selective BBs (P = 0.020). Multivariate mixed effects logistic regression confirmed that at parity of time of occurrence of first arrhythmia and percentage of maximal heart rate reached, both of which were significantly associated to VT occurrence (P = 0.001 for both), the use of nadolol (OR: 0.23; 95% CI: 0.09–0.60; P = 0.011) was independently associated with decreased incidence of VT. Focusing on the 14 patients (overall 133 ESTs) who had at least one ESTs after the occurrence of VT in nadolol, we dissected the effect of dose increase on the probability of VT reoccurrence. Following the documentation of breakthrough VT, increasing the dose of nadolol by 0.5 mg/kg reduced by 2.5 times the probability of having a recurrence of VT (OR: −2.49, 95% CI: −3.96 to − 1.0; P &lt; 0.001). Conclusions Once CPVT is diagnosed, nadolol at 1 mg/kg/day should be used as preferred therapy as it has been shown to suppress VT in most patients. In rare instances in which VA persist despite an adequate nadolol dose, dose increase to 1.5 mg/kg/day may represent an efficacious antiarrhythmic strategy.


Author(s):  
Vidhu Anand ◽  
Garvan C Kane ◽  
Christopher G Scott ◽  
Sorin V Pislaru ◽  
Rosalyn O Adigun ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims  Cardiac power is a measure of cardiac performance that incorporates both pressure and flow components. Prior studies have shown that cardiac power predicts outcomes in patients with reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF). We sought to evaluate the prognostic significance of peak exercise cardiac power and power reserve in patients with normal EF. Methods and results  We performed a retrospective analysis in 24 885 patients (age 59 ± 13 years, 45% females) with EF ≥50% and no significant valve disease or right ventricular dysfunction, undergoing exercise stress echocardiography between 2004 and 2018. Cardiac power and power reserve (developed power with stress) were normalized to LV mass and expressed in W/100 g of LV myocardium. Endpoints at follow-up were all-cause mortality and diagnosis of heart failure (HF). Patients in the higher quartiles of power/mass (rest, peak stress, and power reserve) were younger and had higher peak blood pressure and heart rate, lower LV mass, and lower prevalence of comorbidities. During follow-up [median 3.9 (0.6–8.3) years], 929 patients died. After adjusting for age, sex, metabolic equivalents (METs) achieved, ischaemia/infarction on stress test results, medication, and comorbidities, peak stress power/mass was independently associated with mortality [adjusted hazard ratio (HR), highest vs. lowest quartile, 0.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.4–0.6, P &lt; 0.001] and HF at follow-up [adjusted HR, highest vs. lowest quartile, 0.4, 95% CI (0.3, 0.5), P &lt; 0.001]. Power reserve showed similar results. Conclusion  The assessment of cardiac power during exercise stress echocardiography in patients with normal EF provides valuable prognostic information, in addition to stress test findings on inducible myocardial ischaemia and exercise capacity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2253
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Grochulska ◽  
Sebastian Glowinski ◽  
Aleksandra Bryndal

(1) Background: Cardiovascular diseases, in particular, myocardial infarction (MI), are the main threats to human health in modern times. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR), and especially increased physical activity, significantly prevent the consequences of MI. The aim of this study was to assess physical performance in patients after MI before and after CR. (2) Methods: 126 patients after MI were examined. They were admitted to the cardiac rehabilitation ward twice: in the 3rd month after MI, and then in the 6th month after the last rehabilitation session. CR lasted 20 treatment days (4 weeks with 5 treatment days and 2 days’ break). The exercise stress test on the treadmill and a 6-minute walk test (6MWT) were used to assess physical performance. Patients were assigned to an appropriate rehabilitation model due to their health condition. (3) Results: In the studied group, the exercise stress test time and the metabolic equivalent of task (MET), the maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), and 6MWT score increased significantly (p = 0.0001) at two time-points of observation. (4) Conclusion: CR significantly improves physical performance in patients after MI.


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